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The Devil, Yahweh and Job

Last week I read Paulo Coelhos book The Devil and Miss Prym. I don’t know much about biblical stories but apparently this book is inspired by the Book of Job. As the good spiritual apprentice I am I got a Bible and started reading about Job. Jobs book consists of speeches. Very vague, poetical speeches that I, to be honest, don’t understand shit of. As the disobedient spiritual apprentice I am I kinda, um, jumped some parts of the actual book and went to see Google. I found this text, and this one.

The Book of Job brings out a lot of things I dislike Yahweh for. For example, why is suffering and fear so important? In the beginning of the book when Yahweh brags about Job to The Adversary one of his points is that “no one on earth fears me as much as Job does”. Why would you brag about that? Why would you want a God that you fear? Because he is holy perfection and stands above humans? That brings me to the next problem; What is perfection? In my (Swedish) version of the Biblethis character called The Adversary shows up. Everyone else in the entire world seems to assume that this is in fact Satan, I have no idea but I’m following the big mass here. Yahweh makes a “bet” with Satan. He takes one of his most humble subjects and abuses him. Why? To prove himself towards his biggest enemy, because apparently he needs to (if he didn’t why would he do this in the first place). Is this what you would call a perfect God? I sure wouldn’t. I mean. He has to prove himself. So he’s obviously not perfect in what he does.

Another thing about this book is the fact that Job hasn’t done anything wrong. That’s the entire reason he’s the victim. We all know you will suffer if you commit sin but, apparently, you will also suffer if you don’t. Because you have to prove yourself faithful. My brain cannot understand why anyone would accept this kind of thinking. Imagine if Yahweh was a president/king/emperor. His people were good but he treated them like shit anyway. He killed their kids and stole their livelihood. How would you feel about living like one of his subjects?

The biggest problem however is that a lot of internet-people tells me that all of the above is pointless. Why? Because this is a beautiful story about Jobs faithfulness. It had to be a faithful man to make a point. This is not how Yahweh would have acted under normal conditions, etcetera. I agree with the last one, he probably wouldn’t. My point, however, is; who has decided that the history of Job is a beautiful story about faithfulness? Why can’t it be a fearsome story about Yahwehs horridness? It all depends one what kind of person you are. I can’t see the beauty in this story, no matter how hard I try. Can you?

This was supposed to be a review on The Devil and Miss Prym but then I got caught up in this Job-thingy. I’m not finished with him though. If you have read the Book of Job I would love to hear your opinion on it. I’m going to read it again and philosophize on these matters for a while. Will hopefully return with something a bit more well-composed.

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About Me

I am a 20 years young witch living in Sweden. I grew up in a Christian family and I created this blog in the hopes of coming in contact with other pagans in the world.
This blog will mainly focus on my journey through the world of magick for I am still just a beginner.
English is not my first language so I apologise in advance for misspellings. Do not hesitate to correct me if you find any!
I welcome everyone to my blog no matter who you are or what your beliefs may be!